BUSH Heritage Australia is performing helicopter surveys and fire work on Yourka Reserve in north Queensland in efforts to exterminate Siam and Lantana weed and regenerate native habitat in one of Australia’s 15 biodiversity hotspots.
The project aims to improve habitat for plants, mammals and birds, including the Red goshawk of which there are only about 700 breeding pairs left in the world.
Siam weed is listed as a nationally significant environmental threat. Increased fire management work on Yourka Reserve will step up the fight against Siam and Lantana, using a combination of GPS mapping of locations, foot and horseback patrols and helicopter to achieve targeted burning, and tackle this major threat to north Queensland biodiversity.
Siam weed and Lantana threaten the most productive ecological communities on Yourka Reserve, which sits in the Einasleigh Uplands, adjacent to the Wet Tropics.
“At Yourka, fire is on the front line of our work not only to control weeds but also to reduce the risk of intense, uncontrolled bushfires, and protect long unburnt habitat in this environment,” Reserve Manager Paul Hales said.
“It also will help to reduce the mass of Lantana which makes looking for Siam extremely difficult, apart from its own impact on the creek lines where it smothers out native vegetation,” he said.
“By applying fire strategically, with a mixture of hotter, dryer and cooler, as well as wetter burns throughout the year, we can assist the regeneration of native shrub coverage and promote a varied understorey to improve habitat for woodland birds.”
Siam weed is one of the world’s worst tropical weeds and is included in the Commonwealth’s Alert List for Environmental Weeds. It poses a serious threat to biodiversity that could degrade the values of the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area; it is also a threat for North Queensland’s agricultural properties.
Bush Heritage has confirmed the presence of two populations of the elusive Mareeba Rock wallaby that has found safe refuge on Yourka Reserve (listed as Near Threatened under the Queensland Nature Conservation Act). The thinning of the Lantana around their habitat will help improve their long-term security and prevent against large-scale fires that threaten their survival.
“We’re also doing Siam and Lantana control along Sunday Creek, which may open up the understorey to assist such ambush predators as the Red and Brown goshawk, and owls.”
Bush Heritage aims to contain the spread of Lantana and Siam along Sunday and Oakey creeks, its banks and islands on Yourka Reserve by 2016 to maintain a buffer between the Wet Tropics area in the east and the Herbert River to the west.
